Albert Einstein. In 1946, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist traveled to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the alma mater of Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall and the first school in America to grant college degrees to blacks. At Lincoln, Einstein gave a speech in which he called racism “a disease of white people,” and added, “I do not intend to be quiet about it.” He also received an honorary degree and gave a lecture on relativity to Lincoln students.
In fact, many significant details are missing from the numerous studies of Einstein’s life and work, most of them having to do with Einstein’s opposition to racism and his relationships with African Americans.
Einstein continued to support progressive causes through the 1950s, when the pressure of anti-Communist witch hunts made it dangerous to do so. Another example of Einstein using his prestige to help a prominent African American occurred in 1951, when the 83-year-old W.E.B. Du Bois, a founder of the NAACP, was indicted by the federal government for failing to register as a “foreign agent” as a consequence of circulating the pro-Soviet Stockholm Peace Petition. Einstein offered to appear as a character witness for Du Bois, which convinced the judge to drop the case.
In the wake of the monumental effort to digitize Einstein’s life and genius for the masses, let’s hope that more of us will acknowledge Einstein’s greatness as a champion of human and civil rights for African-Americans as one of his greatest contributions to the world.Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/einstein.asp#llkyWhUXu9s4PV80.99
“There is … a somber point in the social outlook of Americans … Their sense of equality and human dignity is mainly limited to men of white skins. Even among these there are prejudices of which I as a Jew am dearly conscious; but they are unimportant in comparison with the attitude of ‘Whites’ toward their fellow-citizens of darker complexion, particularly toward Negroes. … The more I feel an American, the more this situation pains me. I can escape the feeling of complicity in it only by speaking out.” -Albert Einstein
The UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo: The Seed Cathedral
Theme - Better City, Better Life“The UK pavilion at Expo 2010, colloquially known as the Seed Cathedral, was a sculpture structure built by a nine member conglomeration of British business and government resources directed by designer Thomas Heatherwick. It referenced the race to save seeds from round the world in banks, and housed 250,000 plant seeds at the end of 60,000 acrylic rods, held in place by geometrically-cut holes with the rods inserted therein.”
“The Seed Cathedral is 20 metres in height, formed from 60,000 slender transparent rods, each 7.5 metres long and each encasing one or more seeds at its tip. During the day, they act as optic fibres and draw daylight inwards to illuminate the interior. At night, light sources inside each rod allow the whole structure to glow. As the wind moves past, the building and its optic “hairs” gently move to create a dynamic effect.“
Images: Heatherwick Studio; REUTERS/Aly Song
Violent fiction distracts from violent reality.
Fictional accounts can sometimes be a reflection of reality, but there’s so much to learn about fucked-up-ness that *actually* happens. Repeatedly watching/empathizing with characters without a truthful problem is a waste.
(Thinking particularly about Law and Order-esque shows as I read “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander)
Mammatus clouds, the bubble-shaped protrusions sometimes seen underneath cumulus clouds, are a rare and dramatic type of cloud. The mammatus is typically short-lived, with lobes lasting only 10 minutes or so. Their rarity and short appearances are among the reasons why this cloud type has been little studied. As a result, there are many theories as to how the clouds form their distinctive, bulbous lobes, but, to my knowledge, there is no single widely accepted explanation. Mammatus often appear before or after severe thunderstorms and are associated with strong turbulence, so this may play a factor in their formation. (Photo credit: C. Lindsey; via APOD)
npr:
NASA just released a brand new equirectangular projection of Jupiter, so I thought it would be fun to revisit the surface of some planetary bodies … IN CONTINUOUSLY LOOPING GIF FORM.
So here’s
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Earth’s moon
- Mars
- Jupiter
- Ganymede (one of Jupiter’s moons)
- Pluto
Credit: NASA/JPL, USGS
ICYMI: Skunk Bear created planet loops for our viewing pleasure! -Emily
Dates that never existed, as the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar. In order to bring the calendar up to the correct date (which was 11 days behind), September 2 was immediately followed by September 14.
Super Trivia Encyclopedia by Fred L. Worth, 1979.